United States Books

I was hoping for a lot with a 5 star amzn rating but unfortunately I only got through half of the book because it failed to meet those expectations. I was hoping for a technical presentation of clandestine affairs. If the author was going to describe a particular stakeout and audio operation I was hoping it would be presented with maps, technical layouts, and diagrams of devices such that the detail would justify another book in this area. What I got was a shallow examination of multiple operations where little information was divulged and most of the drama centered around the departments lack of preparation and eventual overcoming of their technical shortfalls through private industry or industrious tech.
I was hoping to read a book about the technicalities of the operation not a book where i had to flip back and forth to the appendix to look up the abundant acronyms used and where I would go pages just reading about the cia's lack of preparation. occasional stories were interesting but would likely not be new to anyone versed in the subject.

I skimread this book, I admit it. Sections were so dry, I just couldn't deal with it. I needed a good mix of the technical and the real-world.

It broke my heart that so much time and effort was needed to get to a place where our Soviet informants could share info, only to be ruined by Hanssen.

Meantime, I roared at the stories of the agents desperately experimenting with inflatable sex-toy women as possible "doubles" for car passengers who had bailed from a car moments before.... and the stories of what was involved in trying to buy bulk numbers of inflatable person-shaped anythings for experimentation as body doubles. THAT tickled me enormously. The ultimate details of why this double was needed, the misery of what the real human would be doing in the meantime, grim grim stuff. James Bond movies have done us all a big disservice. The real spy world is anything but glamorous stuff.

I am in awe and forever grateful to those who stuck it out to get a few seconds of eavesdropped conversation, a page of forbidden blueprints. Thank you guys. I get what you did, what years you sacrified.

Oh, and, yeah, I will no longer be impressed by people who think it's clever and antidisestablishment to sneak over and hang out in Cuba as tourists, having read the detail of the Cuba prison system. Horrific stuff.

SPYCRAFT is the book, every lay person should read. This book shows that good intelligence work rather than being glamorous, can be a tedious and perilous occupation that involves pain-staking preparation. Intelligence means gathering necessary information for policy makers to make realistic and level-headed decisions. With provided intelligence, policy makers can take steps to prevent disasters from occurring or global conflict from taking place.

While reconnaissance satellites can show what physical movements are taken by nations and NGOs, HUMINT or human intelligence is needed by policy makers to decide if a bluff is being made or deterrence will be required. SPYCRAFT shows how the CIA has used innovation and daring in the gathering and transmitting of HUMINT. The innovation of inventing tools is used for gathering and transmitting of intelligence. The personal risk involved usually doesn't involve gun-play or some melodramatic heroism. Personal risk is about not getting caught and taking personal risk to protect a source or helping an exposed source from deadly reprisal.

Too often, the public sees the Central Intelligence Agency as later day Keystone Kops or Americanized versions of James Bond. Neither stereotype is accurate. SPYCRAFT demonstrates that the people who work at the CIA are everyday Americans who have decided to take up the cause of maintaining the peace by sustaining a professional intelligence organization.

I have known Bob Wallace since we were 3rd graders in neighboring communities in Lincoln and Ottawa Counties, Kansas. We competed against one another in team sports throughout our grade school and high school days and were teammates for several years of summer baseball for Home Oil Company, Barnard, Kansas. I had not seen Bob since 1962 or perhaps a few years later, but I kept track of him through one of his cousins who happens to be my brother-in-law. Clearly, Bob is an outstanding individual whose accomplishments (those he can discuss, let alone those known only to a select few with the highest of security clearances) are incredible. It is almost unbelievable to me that this tough farm boy, who used to pigeon-toe out to the mound from behind home plate in dusty sweat-soaked catcher's regalia to counsel me about my side-arm deliveries, went on to become one of our nation's top CIA officials.

I ordered a copy of Spycraft months before its release and read it with great interest. I learned more about clandestine service and specific case histories than I had ever anticipated. I guess it had not occurred to me that the techies didn't just do a quick orientation for the end user and go on to the next new thing. Also surprising was the candor with which Bob described the agonizing process of getting this book approved by the CIA. My having known Bob since early childhood permitted me to ascribe the highest credibility to this account of key events and inventions involving spies and spytechs.

I had the privilege of being Bob's guest at a presentation he made to a local fraternal organization a few days after Spycraft was released. He signed my copy of the book and bemusedly asked me my favorite part (was this a test to see if I had read it?) Near the end of his presentation, I think he set the stage for the next few chapters of a yet unwritten update someone may write in a decade or two. Bob responded to the last question of his Q & A, inquiring whether even more refined and amazing gadgets were currently being developed and used in the field. He could not answer except to say that the gadgets described in the book were developed up into the 90's and with the passage of a number of years one need only use imagination to extrapolate from then until now. My parting comment to Bob in an email after the luncheon was that I hoped we lived long enough for him to write and me to read his memoir. In the meantime, I am content to use my imagination to insert him into the book here and there when he quotes one of the old hands or an unnamed station chief--who knows; could be???

Having read and enjoyed Spycraft, I expected it to garner solid reviews. However, I am quite surprised to see that until now, it's received 100% five-star reviews. I've almost never seen a book reviewed this favorably and I've certainly read better books with more mixed reviews.

Don't get me wrong, Spycraft is a good book. It allows its reader behind a curtain into a world that is typically strictly off-limits. You get to experience the real-world existence of spies living and working secretly behind enemy lines. The book reveals a lot of the technology used by spies, focusing in on listening devices, cameras and communication devices. What stands out is the ingenuity and craftsmanship that goes into the creation of the devices upon which people stake their lives.

While the book is written about spy technology, what I found to be the most surprising from the book was the the amount of time and effort invested in some of the CIA's covert operations. Often times, years are spent establishing credible cover or doing piecemeal research about a target to avoid drawing attention. 100% of some peoples' living patterns are built around an operational necessity that takes up only the smallest percentage their time. It's truly amazing to read about the sacrifices made to achieve an intelligence payoff.

There is a problem, however, the book reads unexpectedly dull. I'm sure this is an outgrowth of the fact that real CIA operatives have to be consummate professionals and not suave, womanizing James Bond-types, but it takes away from the book. I am not implying in any way that anything should be fabricated or embellished to add to the excitement, but instead that the story is inherently exciting and that the writing should have reflected that more even if the author's demeanor is necessarily even-keeled.

A great book, but exciting stories get told in a seemingly Prozac-tamed manner. I recommend this one highly, but it could have been better still.

This is one of the best books I have read -certainly the best in the category of social history. Jay Stevens has researched his material meticulously and has delivered the narrative in a most enthralling manner. I found it hard to lay the book down. Whether, like me, you lived through the psychedelic experience of the sixties or you have but a passive interest, you will be amazed to learn of the full impact that the psychedelic culture has had on Western society, religion and philosophy -right through to the chemical hedonism of today.
This is truly a superb read!

I bought this on the recommendation of Dr. Stanley Krippner in a lecture on ayahuasca. It is absolutely the best book I have read on the history of the psychedelic movement during the past 100 years or so. Timothy Leary is not dead - he's only outside looking in. :-)

This should be required reading in American History. Who knew Canada had legal LSD centers? And the characters- Nin, Huxley, Kesey, Leary and Capt.Al Hubbard (??). Will we ever see their like again? Really a very sad story, and a fascinating one. Nice to see the Chief Boo Hoo, old Art Kleps in there as well. Sen. Kennedy: "Is your title really Chief Boo Hoo?" Art Kleps: "I'm afraid so, sir."

This is the definitive account of the 1960s psychedelic drug scene. Stevens does a great job of conveying the highs and lows of LSD and its proponents. His ability to relate endless facts while retaining a fast-paced narrative structure is amazing. I found this one of the most "addicting" books out there about the significance of drugs in American culture. Stevens reviews all the major personalities: Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, and more. If you're interested in this electric decade, the power of psychedelics to warp the mind, or any of the poet-prophets who were compelled to experiment with and sing the praises of acid then this book is sure to delight.

This was a very good book. You get lots of interesting stuff about Aldous Huxley, the famous beat writers, Owsley, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the evolution of the so called counterculture as a whole.

The problems that I have with Storming Heaven is not for what was in it but what was left out. For one Stevens was WAY too easy on Timothy Leary. The author seemed almost like a school girl with a crush when he recounts his visit to Learys home for an interview for the book. He comes off more as a fan than he does an objective writer at times when he deals with Leary. Why wasn't it mentioned that it has come out that Leary was a government informant and information he gave led to the death of two members of the Weather Underground? Its also a known fact that Leary was surrounded by CIA assets and there is a lot of evidence that he was a government agent himself, and at the least he was feeding them information.

There is also a fleeting mention that wasn't elaborated on about Ken Kesey that he had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.

They also fleetingly mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who were major LSD distributors and were known to be full of CIA people and had a close association with a Jewish man named Ron Starks who was a CIA spook that also happened to the biggest LSD dealer in the world. Starks was not even given the first mention in this book!

I mean with all these ivy league, Mkultra and CIA connections to the elites of the so called counterculture I have to seriously wonder how much of the hippy movement of the late 60's was an organic rebellion against what was (and still is) a very repressive society both socially and politically and how much of it was intentional social engineering that came from the highest levels of the power structure. Many people believe that the anti-war movement was flooded with drugs, in particular LSD, by federal agents. Its well known that the government tried to subvert and destroy the anti-war movement with the cointelpro program so why wouldn't they also use drugs to try to destroy it? While it can't be denied that LSD has enhanced many an artist, writer and musicians work can you honestly say that sitting around frying on acid all the time is going to do anything but disable political activists who in many cases were in a life and death struggle? Besides that the fact remains that many people became permanently damaged as result of doing acid.

All that said I would definitely recomend reading or of you can get it cheap, buying Storming Heaven. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it. I realize that this book was more geared toward looking into what psychelic drugs can do with the mind and its exponents history and theories on the subject than any conspiratorial maneuverings by the US government involving LSD but it just didn't go deep enough into the rabbit hole for my tastes.

I bought this book one week before I passed CA State Exam. I'm loving it! It gives all the nuts & bolts to a rookie for a quick & sound start in the business. This book is a must-have on the shelf for every new agent, period!

New or 'aged' agents will get many valuable tips from this book. It is just packed with useful information that a successfull real estate agent (Dirk) has learned over the years. Don't make the same mistakes. Learn from his experience and be a top producer.

This book is a must read for anyone considering a career in Real Estate as well as a refresher for experienced agents trying to get their business back on track. Dirk Zeller manages to distill a vast amount of experience down into a basic plan for success. (No magic bullets are promised: It involves honest work, but this book will help you manage your time better and allow you to concentrate on revenue producing activities.) For me personally, my biggest problems as an agent have been time management and spending too much time on non-revenue producing activities. These two areas of the book are worth the price alone. Highly recommended!

This is a very comprehensive book for beginners and experienced realtors. It seems to be losely based on the teachings of Mike Ferry by an experienced agent who actually did what he writes. I highly recommend it with one reservation: much of it is very similar to the book The Champion Real Estate Agent written by the same author. If you buy one of the books you don't really need to buy both.

This book does have some usful tips. However, the author is obviously a career salesman. He appears to have grown his career from real estate sales to selling his own products ( seminars, web sites, and sales coaching). He equates financial success by selling, to being a quality agent. His focus seems to be on the typical salesperson's perspective ie. ABC (always be closing), not matching the client to the property they want, like and can aford.

In his wonderful and fascinating book Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares, Richard Burt, the leading scholar of Shakespeare and film studies, pioneers research into the manifold ways Shakespeare enters into American popular culture. Concentrating mostly on film but attending as well to television sit-coms, Burt offers penetrating insight into everything from mainstream adaptations of Shakespeare to "low" spin-offs in which Shakespeare's language almost entirely disappears. Burt explores both what film and mass media have done to Shakespeare and also what Shakespeare enables our culture to do trhough film and other electronic media. Readers intersted in this book will be happy to know that Burt has since edited a related collection entitled Shakespeare After Mass Media and has co-edited Shakespeare, the Movie II.

One doesn't usually expect to find oneself laughing when reading a book of criticism written by an academic, much less a book on Shakespeare. But Burt's book is frequently just that, funny to the point of making me laugh out loud. Burt has a refreshingly off-beat sense of humor, and the materials he has discovered--such as an adult movie version of Hamlet--aer themselves often hilarious as well, though not always intentionally so. But far from being just a laugh riot, the book is also a serious, critically sophisticated analysis of Shakespeare's fate incontemporary mass media, where much of hte lnagugae is cut or confined to well-known quotations. Burt's final chapter on films about teaching Shakespeare is quite moving, and Burt has the courage to raise difficult questions without pretending he is able to answer them. He is right to think that the questions are more important than the answers. Burt is to be congratulated for writing his book in a clear and engaging prose style without sacrificing the complexity of his thought.

One of the many strengths of Burt's truly excellent book is that it not only discusses Shakespeare adaptations but uses Shakespeare, or of ShaXXXspeares, to discuss post-war American popular culture. Burt's theory of the loser as critic has ramifications for all criticism, not just Shakespeare. This is a profound, original, and engaging book.

I happened to be doing research for my thesis on Shakespeare in the university library and, while looking for other books, I was intrigued by the three XXXs in the title of Burt's book on the shelf, so I pulled it off and looked through it. What a daring work of cultural criticism! When I saw the chapters on Shakespeare porn, I marvelled both at the courage of the man to write such a book and how at the publisher who took it on. Of course, I check it out and read it. I especially was drawn to the chapter on action films and Burt's point that while the films cannibalize others, no one in the films ever eats; the characters are anorexic. The book is full of similarly wonderful insights. I am a cinephile, and very much appreciated Burt's quite hip approach to ShaXXXspeare. Now, it's back to those other, rather staid books of Shakespeare criticism, I was orginally looking for.

Whatever you think about Shakespeare, it is impossible not to agree with the points Burt makes in this book. His analysis is right on the money and you will never be able to look at Shakespearean movies or literature in the same way. A fantastic book and a must read.

Although I am the wife of a retired soldier who spent 24 years in the Army with two tours in Viet Nam, I still could identify with these women during their husbands' deployments to Iraq. I was especially pleased to read about Baumholder since that was where we were stationed in the 70's. This is a different war from ours, the Army has changed, women are much more independent than I was in the late 60's and early 70's when my husband went to war; however, the loneliness, worry about your spouse, counting down of days until he/she comes home, sometimes the anxieties and sheer terror that you feel...those things remain the same. This is one of my favorite books about this war and I think that it is ideal reading for any woman who watches her man leave for war. I was glad to read that the Army has Family Readiness Groups and support groups for the families. A glimpse into these women's lives was so revealing and I felt their pain. Just an excellent read, in my old Army wife opinion.

As an Army wife, having gone through one deployment, and at the end of the second one, this book made me realize that my feelings, and the things my husband and I go through, are natural. I felt as if this book described my feelings and my mistakes. It was a relief to read stories of women who have gone through what i have gone through. To those military moms who think that the wives cant feel what they feel just because we didnt give birth to the soldiers, you are wrong. We are the ones who have to hear their complaints, frustrations, and have to come up with wise words when they are down. Your love for your child is different and so is their love for you. You will always be their mom, just dont underestimate what it takes to stand by a soldier, be faithful, wise, and strong.

As a military spouse and after reading so many great reviews here and elsewhere, I felt the need to read this book. It was a little fluffy for my liking. I did relate to events and day to day life of the women. However, I felt as though a lot was missing from this book. I was left wanting to know more about the characters. I think it could have been developed a little more.

all i can say is that by reading this book the last 3 deployments my husband has gone thru and the time i have spent by myself and the kids are finally validated.
im a army wife of 8 years, and 3rd deployment survivor.
i am german where my husband was stationed at for 10 years, and deployed to iraq twice from there.
i got the book and instantly started to read, and i couldnt stop, i sat on the couch for 6 hours crying and sobbing.
and realizing what i have been thru, some of the things i have pushed aside, as my husbandactually deployed from darmstadt in january, pushing into iraq right away, i pushed aside not sleeping for 2 years, while everytime at night i started to jump up when i heared car doors slam, checking the window as my heart almost stopped.
i am one of these women, and i feel after reading this book that i am somewhat relieved.
now that my husband is deployed for the 4th time in his career, i told him as soon as he gets home he will read that book to understand what i had to deal with.
i absoloutly love this book and will keep it for my kids to read, when they grow.
i am at peace in a sence.
thank you jessica redmon

Finally, a book that got it right. I've gone through my husband's 6mo deployment in 2002 to Kosovo living by myself in Schweinfurt. Then the next deployment to Iraq in 2004 while stationed in GA. This time with the surprise of finding out I got pregnant sometime in the week before he left. There was talk about an extention for them, but thankfully, they came home 1 year to the day. We are now on our third deployment. This time Afghanistan. I'm now home with three dogs, a three year old and a new baby that was 3 mo old when he left. Each deployment has been totally different with our location and family size. I love this book because every woman's story was a bit different. In their job status, family size and coping mechanisms. All were right on! I know and knew women just like them. I read this book after borrowing it from the library on post. Now its going on my Amazon.com wishlist and will be recommending to anyone who will listen. Thank you Jessica for giving us an outlet to share with the world of what its really like.

This book is such a great collection of tiki decor and knick-knacks that you don't even need to read the captions to enjoy it. My wife and I want to turn one of our rooms into a tiki bar. We thought we would need to do a lot of looking to get a good idea of what real post-war tiki bars were like. Well, look no further. This book has it all. If you type in "tiki" in an Internet search engine, it wouldn't come up with this many ideas. This book reviews everything from the blue prints to the big tiki restaurants down to the coasters underneath the amazing assortment of tiki mugs. The title could not have been more appropriate. This is the definitive book of tiki. Have great fun looking through the book. Depending on your age, it might make you nostalgic for those lost days.

If you have the slightest interest in the subject, you have to have this book. it is an amazing piece of work, and a visual feast. It is one book I pick up again and again, and always notice something new. Buy it.

Truly a wonder of nature this Book of Tiki. Chances are, you might so your parents or grandparents in the pictures, from the days before you considered them old.

The text of the book goes briefly through the various sources of Polynesian pop-culture, and where it branched off. From Michener's South Pacific, to the Lanai apartments in Anytown, USA.

The pictures, brought through the archives of time in the form of various postcards and of the now empty lots that once were Tiki bowling alleys and apartments, show us a fascinating time of tehnicolor wonder and primitive naivete. This was before PC was PC.

All around, a fantastic read, whether you're a full on tiki freak, or you simply wonder why grandpa wore a Hawaiian shirt to your wedding.

Like all Taschen books, this book is visually STUNNING! Just leafing through the pictures never gets boring. The real treat is the book is also jam packed facts, folklore, drink recipies, and so much more. More information about Tiki than I ever knew existed.

Plenty of eye-candy in this book, but very well balanced with informative and fun content. A must have for the Tiki enthusiast!

This book is a must have for anyone interested in Tiki or kitsch art. Describing themselves as "urban archaeologists" seeking remnants of Tiki culture, the authors provide a fun and informative look at this vanishing art form. The book does an acceptable job presenting the evolutionary history of Tiki, from the 1920s to the present. Key events, such as the establishment of Trader Vic's, and the Kon Tiki craze of the late 40s, are looked at in further detail. There is also a good look at the "artifacts" of Tiki art and architecture throughout the United States. The book is packed with color photos of Tiki mugs, matchbooks, buildings, and much more.

However, the book does lean a bit too much towards making the book eye candy. The Book of Tiki uses intense colors, and ultra-hip page compositions that make it difficult to read (typically Taschen, but I still found it distracting). Also, a consolidation of information would have made it easier to reference, such as a table differentiating the different "Trader" Tiki businesses. Also, some of the text ("Exotica and the Tiki style were denounced as contrived rituals of the imperialist establishment at the same time that the Vietnam war developed into and ugly mistake, with native huts and palm trees burning on TV."), had me wondering if they were being tounge-in-cheek, or were actually serious.

Nevertheless, this book is the current bible for Tiki aficionados, and is well worth having on your bookshelf.

Wow , this author did a lot of research for this book . He started out researching info on his own family member (adolph Korn) and found lots of other info on the children that was captured by the indians and raised with the tribes (White Indians) , The children were captured in indian raids and some were taken as they were out working in the fields , taken at a very young age they learned easily the lives of the salvages . Eventually all the children would be returned to their "paleface families" but then they never fit in and some even choose to go back to the commanches and live with them . These white indians never had a good life and were misserable even after their return to family . Adolph Korn disliked the white mans ways so much that he choose to go live in the diamond caves in TX , most of these white indians never had material possessions even in adult life . During the raids by the indians people were killed and some scalped , and they even took the white male indians on raids with them where they would still horses , cattle and even kill people .
This is really a great read if you are into genealogy and have found some indian hertiage in your family line or if you just want to know more about the various Indian tribes and their way of life .
These kids were captured very harshly and went for days sometimes without food or water until they reached the indian camps , but once there they seem to be treated Ok other than the males going on the warrior raids . They also learned how to live off the land by killing buffalo & etc with a bow and arrow that they learned to make from dogwood trees . After the capture some indians raised these white indians like their own children .

Very well put together book of white captives abducted by the Indians.
Scott Zesch did a great job at researching information to put to this book together.
This book tells the life of the captured and also helps the reader to understand how the captives became Inianized with in a short time frame.
The transformation of being taken from the captives white family to become Indians, then being recovered back to their birth parents gives the reader a better understanding of what they had to go threw.
Thank you Scott Zesch.

This is a must have book.

A few years back, Scott Zesch was doing family history when he ran across a grave of a long-lost ancestor named Adolf Korn. Scott eventually learned that Adolf had been a captive of the Comanche Indians for several years as a boy. After being "rescued," he was always strange, and ended up living his life as a hermit in a cave.

Zesch expanded his research, and the result was "The Captured," a fascinating book about children captured by the Comanches, their experiences, and what became of them in later years. Zesch discovered that children younger than puberty tended to assimilate almost immediately; they forgot their native language (English or German) and even lost their attachment to their mothers. Zesch examines this heartbreaking psychology through his research into the lives of the individuals, which he relates in vivid detail.

"The Captured" is a thoughtful book that both sweeps you up in human drama and leaves you with a lot of things to think about.

Reviewer: Elizabeth Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark"

My 7th grade Horizons English class enjoyed this novel immensely! We used it as an extension of Texas History, combined as an interdisciplinary unit.

picked up my first copy of this book in Fredericksburg, TX where I happened to be eating some BBQ and looked across the street to see an old settlers outpost fort. I wandered around to check it out and the volunteer guide there showed me the book and said it was an amazing story about a little known niche of our history - children kidnapped by the Indians to re-populate their own tribes thorugh a process of "the strongest will survive and be good warriors" they rode the kids hard and if they cried or shoed signs of weakness, they killed them on the spot, figuring they wouldnt be worth the effort to train and raise. if the kids were able to endure the introduction phase, then they began living life like kings, training to shoot arrows, ride horses, fight, and hunt all day. leaving the domestic chores to the women. nearly all of them eventually were returned or sold back to the white settlers but some refused to go and a number of them ran away and rejoined their indian families.

it reads like an adventure book and proves that real life is better than fiction. the Author does a great job o story telling and is very diligent to accurately reflect true historical data as pulled from historical interviews, military records and newspaper articles.

This is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to understand the U.S. Constitution, but especially for high school and college graduates who know they want to go into law as a vocation. My grandson, who just graduated from high school, was really pleased that I gave it to him, since he's planning to study Constitutional Law.

I have a friend whose son is adamant that the Federal Income Tax is illegal(16th Amendment)...so I purchased this book...looked up the 16th amendment...and sure enough it is VERY LEGAL...only kooks try to avoid paying it...well I copied the pertinant pages from this book and gave them to her so that she could pass them on to her law-breaking son...If you really want to know what the LAW OF THE LAND is ...then read this book...read it multiple times and please read it to your children...so that they understand our Constitution.

With each clause of the Constitution placed in historical context and reviewed in light of recent Supreme Court precedents, this academic tome brings together the brightest young and old minds in conservative and libertarian legal thought, including Eugene Volokh, Nelson Lund, Claire Priest, and countless others. Indispensible guide to anyone interested in an original meaning view of the Constitution. Not a better guide out there for originalist scholarly thought.

Every American Citizen should read this book. Understanding the relationship between citizenship and the rules by which the people authorize governance are very well described. With the press for democracy in the world, we tend to forget that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. Likewise, compliance with the Constitution prevents the establishment of an aristocracy. With the current arrogance of elected officials, we as a people have an obligation to become better informed on the roots of our sovereign law (which comes from the people) and what should be enforced; and that enforcement comes from our knowledge of the Constitution! The Heritage Foundation has done a superb service for all Americans in preparing this guide!

Edwin Meese was head of the editorial board for this guide, which is put out by the Heritage Foundation. That might suggest to some people that there's a conservative slant to the guide, but those people would be wrong. The Heritage Guide was first brought to my attention by a very liberal aquaintance who praised it to the skies, and then by a very conservative colleague who likewise praised it highly. They both had good reasons to praise it.

The Guide takes you through the entire text of the Constitution, line by line, article by article, starting with a three-page discussion of the preamble. It's written by around 100 contributors, all of them well-regarded experts in law and political science. Their discussion of even contentious topics (e.g., Amendment II or privacy rights) is dispassionate and clear, laying out for the reader the history and the case law behind contemporary constitutional issues and avoiding value judgements. The contributors write without legal jargon and with admirable directness, making the Guide accessible (not just accessible, but even enjoyably readable) to anyone with a good highschool education. The sophistication of their discussion, though, makes it suitable also for university students at all levels and for anyone who has any interest at all in the U.S. Constitution. No matter what your position is on presidential war powers or gun control, you come away from this guide with a clear and concise understanding of how the legal debate got where it is now. Each article in the Guide is followed by cross references to other passages in the Constitution, suggestions for further research, and a list of significant cases touching on the particular Article and Section of the Constitution discussed. Thus the Guide isn't just good reading on its own, but an excellent tool and springboard for further research on any constitutional topic.

This book should be required reading for university undergraduates, and for at least those few who will fall under my power next year, it will be. I intend to use this book in my classes on "Law and Literature" and "Law and Economics" as required supplementary reading. It will help clarify class discussions that revolve around constitutional issues, improve student papers, and make my students better informed citizens of the United States. That last one is the real payoff for everyone. I recommend this book far beyond the mere number of stars by which Amazon allows me to rate it.

Philip Reed's "In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing" reveals his elevating but daunting experience as a student, friend, and biographer of the amazing Mike Austin. Mr. Reed's humbling yet successful quest to learn the keys to super-human drives endured the gauntlet of Mike Austin's piercing, super-energized, indomitable personality. At the age of 64, over 33 years ago during competition, Mr. Austin achieved the still-standing Guinness Book of World Records standard of 515 yards for longest recorded drive. Curiously, until now, Mike Austin was largely ignored in conventional golf history though knowledgeable insiders believe he was a half-century or more ahead in power-golf technique. Philip Reed's documentary has filled a significant gap in our golfing lore. For the dedicated golfer who seeks an honest inside-the-ropes story, "In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing" is a terrific value.

Ostensibly this book is half biography of little-known long driver Mike Austin and half technical discussion of Austin's revolutionary swing, many aspects of which run counter to conventional PGA wisdom. But as the artfully written narrative progresses, a third element emerges as well -- the touching story of the friendship that develops between Austin and author Reed during the writing of the book.

No avid golfer could read this book and fail to feel inspired to work on his or her game (I finished it yesterday and headed straight for the driving range today); some might even want to try out Austin's unorthodox mechanics. Yet there is a human-interest story here as well, the story of a larger-than-life golfing god who smacked a 515-yard drive at age 64 but somehow couldn't putt to save his life; lived it up with Hollywood celebrities and was respected by the best golfers in the world; studied the human anatomy and wore a skeleton suit while giving golf lessons to demonstrate proper body movement; and forged an unlikely friendship with a journalist decades his junior who weathered Austin's steely gruffness until it gave way to genuine respect and affection.

Highly recommended -- not just for golfers, but also for anyone interested in a well-crafted feel-good story about a fascinating man and his iconoclastic genius.

I've just finished reading this book and I have to say it is a great read and is well worth buying.

It is a story of how the author, Philip Reed, sets off to document the world's longest ever drive in a tournament set in 1974 by Mike Austin, and along the way wants to learn enough about this swing so he can transform his own drive of 200 yards into a more manly 300 yards.

The books gets off to a shaky start but I stuck with it. And after a couple of chapters I could no longer put it down. He helped me get to know more about Mike Austin, his history and his achievements.

It made me want to be there in the place of the author since Mike seems like a real character and a throwback to a different age and a different world.

It even gave me a few tips, and some hope, on how I might possibly be able to improve my own swing to give 300 yard drives. Now that would be nice.

Read this and give yourself a pleasant break from all those golf instruction manuals out there while enjoying a good golfing story.

The other reviews say it all - that this is a wonderful book on many different levels. I trust that some day it will be recognized as a sports classic.

I just want to add that Reed's book is an invaluable companion to Dan Shauger's 'The 21st Century Golf Swing'. This latter book has such an odd and uncomfortable style (my opinion only, of course) that it was hard for me to know whether to take the technical parts of it seriously. After reading this fine book it became clear that, yes indeed, you can.

It would be great if Shauger and Reed could collaborate on a second edition of '21st Century...'. I'll put up some front money, if that would help.

This book is absolutely wonderful. I picked it up out of curiosity after learning about Mike Austin's record-breaking achievement (longest drive in professional golf competition history), and ended up being completely drawn into the story. With a straightforward, honest writing style that moves at a nice pace and never gets bogged down, Philip Reed does a masterful job of portraying a complex man filled with both flaws and greatness, who not only achieved a stupendous feat that no one has ever topped, but also lived a fascinating life that plays like a great movie. Reed deftly weaves Austin's story together with his own journey by bringing the reader along with him as he describes his efforts to get to know Mike Austin and learn his swing secrets. He sets out not only to write about Austin, but also to experience for himself the power of Mike Austin's swing, hoping to harness it to achieve a personal goal of hitting the ball 300 yards. As we learn about Austin's amazing life and unmatched golf swing alongside the author, we are simultaneously drawn into a surprisingly touching story of how Reed came to develop a bond of friendship with Austin. Viewed through the lens of Reed's relationship with Austin, we come to understand and truly appreciate Mike Austin at a much deeper level, and also come away with important lessons about life. This is a magnificent book, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

If you want to understand what Gilda felt as she described her cancer experience this is the book for you. I thourghly enjoyed this read. Her courage in the face of all this was truly inspiring....

This book is less an autobiography than it is a memoir of dealing with cancer. The entire book is pretty much about the nitty gritty details of cancer, which could prove a valuable comforting resource for those going through something similar. Wish there had been more about her life and career. But it's pretty much all about cancer and Gene Wilder, whom she obviously adored. I like that it feels like you can hear her voice when you read--it sounds like her and can be very funny and touching. She seems like a great person and someone you would have loved to know as a friend.

I first discovered Gilda from watching the TV-movie of this starring Jami Gertz on ABC back in 2002 (which I don't recommend for highly-acclaimed critics, or to anyone for various reasons resting solely on the persona portrayed by Gertz) .
Although growing up in Detroit, I wasn't very familiar with Gilda as one would think, being from the same town. I looked EVERYWHERE to try to purchase this book, on here, Border's, Barnes&Noble and other various websites and my last resort, eBay (which I recommend if you don't know where to purchase it). In which case, I received it in the mail after a week or so, ripped opened the packaging and read it like a fat kid eating cake. Wanting more. After reading the book, you feel like you know Gilda. While reading the book, you feel like you know Gilda.
She starts off talking about her random excursions in her ambiguous life, how she wanted her story to go one way, but it took a left turn and made another. Gilda especially highlights her relationship with Gene and how they met, where they got married, the process of getting married in a French town hall and saying "I do" at every pause, because she couldn't understand the French language. She did everything in her power to try to become Gene's wife. She suffocated him, he moved to New York came back to see her in Connecticut and when "the ducks were landed" she ended her relationship with Former SNL lead-guitarist, G.E. Smith and so began the relationship between Rosanne Rosannadanna and Willy Wonka. Her never ending battle to have a child, put me at the edge of my seat as she went through 2 miscarriages.
Feeling unexplainably fatigued all the time, she tried to find the source of her problem by taking vitamins, sleeping more, eating properly. She stopped smoking (a habit she picked up at age 14) and went to doctors who mis- prescribed her with "Epsom-Bar Syndrome." Eventually, it got to the point where she couldn't get up and was constantly tired, so she got other opinions and was diagnosed.
STAGE FOUR Ovarian Cancer.
Afraid to be seen in public, she took therapy and began to realize how many other people were suffering from the same thing. She joined the Wellness Community, found her place and died on May 20, 1989. This book touched my heart from beginning to end. As if she was my life-long friend. I own the original 1989 edition, and I am NEVER letting ANYONE else touch it.

I was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2005 and life has never been the same. My partner purchased this book for me and I loved it. I loved it not because it read like a self help book but because it read as a true commentary of life with cancer. It's words touched a part of me that no self help book could ever touch. Radner's everyday dealings with this insiduous disease made me laugh and cry and boil over with anger. Radner's words help me to roam through the numerous rooms that one staggers through after a diagnosis of cancer. My heartfelt thanks to Gilda and I would recommend the book to everyone who is affected and infected with cancer.

Gilda Radner was a very fine performer, but this book--not devoted to her entertainment career--shows her to be a class act off-stage as well. Some of us are lucky to have faired well at the hands of brilliant medicos, and are very grateful for it, but anyone who has had long-term experience with America's byzantine medical system knows how easy it is to become fixated, to the detriment of one's own health, upon its appalling lapses and petty cruelties, and lose sight of what's positive. Practically crawling, doubled-over in pain, before doctors took her condition seriously, and, later, away from treatment for an extended period of "remission," only to find out it was merely a mistaken test reading, Radner shows no bitterness in this honest, brave, and, yes, sometimes funny book.

Someone so famous during the golden era of "Saturday Night Live" that she could hardly walk the streets of New York without being mobbed by fans, Radner is reduced by illness to humble sprees involving bingo parlors and mail-order catalogues. Demonstrating resilience, but also a sweet brave sadness that makes you hope, against all sane logic, that things will turn out differently.

It has been written elsewhere that when Radner was very ill in the hospital she would make the rounds cheering up other patients, introducing herself "Hi, I used to be Gilda Radner." There you have it--that transcendent quality humor sometimes has to defy all human limitations, even death. Fortunately Radner will defy it more than most because her warm, precise and yet delightfully silly comedy will live on in tape, film and this very good book. Thank you, Gilda, you will always be really something.